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New appliances for home kitchen


doronin

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I'm moving to a house, and soon going to get all new kitchen appliances - cooktop, oven, and fridge for the beginning.

I recently came from... outside of North America to Montreal, and thus not well familiar with the local brands. These days I'm visiting appliances stores in attempt to familiarise myself with what's available here in Canada.

My target is highest possible quality equipment available for still reasonable price, i.e. I won't go high-end, but I'm willing to pay for quality.

I obviously would like to spend my dollars in a most efficient way, so my question is - given more-less equal price on the item, what brands I'm better to stay away from (ex: fancy but not worth the price)? What brands should I be looking for?

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Ok guys, I see your point. :smile:

I see lots of Electrolux/Frigidaire and Kitchenaid products among ranges and fridges. Can I trust to these brands, do they represent a good value in general? What about Viking?

Please...

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Ok guys, I see your point.  :smile:

I see lots of Electrolux/Frigidaire and Kitchenaid products among ranges and fridges. Can I trust to these brands, do they represent a good value in general? What about Viking?

Please...

Hi,

Consumer Reports current issue has an article on the Most & Least Reliable Brands.

In Refrigerators, the most reliable brands are GE, Kenmore and Whirpool for both side-by-side and top-freezer models. For bottom freezers consider Amana and Kenmore.

In ranges the most reliable brands are GE, Hotpoint and (electric) Whirpool. The least reliable include KitchenAid and Viking.

Tim

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Are you going to be totally redoing the kitchen (new cabinets, etc)? If not, and if the appliances have a certain space they will go into, that may dictate which brands you can select from. I know that when we bought a new fridge and stove, to a certain degree, I was limited as to what brands I could look at because of the size of the openings (I was not willing to sacrifice any counter or cupboard space). Before you start shopping, measure everything twice, and be sure and measure the doorways and windows so you know that the appliance will actuallly be able to make it into the house!

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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And if you really want feedback, it helps if you post the ones you are considering. Then we have a target to shoot at. There is just so very much out there, its hard to start from a clean slate. You might look at a couple of the kitchen remodel threads to see what I mean - some of them tossed out a "what do you think of this one?" and got a lot of interesting feedback.

It sounds like fun, making a clean lovely new kitchen. I should figure out what my piece of dreck stove is and post a dire warning against it!

"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.

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Post in the Canada/Montreal section of EG and see what they suggest. Ind doing my research when I bought my new fridge, I discovered that only a few companies actually make the units then they are marketed under many different brand names. This may be different in Canada.

My Photography: Bob Worthington Photography

 

My music: Coronado Big Band
 

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There is just so very much out there, its hard to start from a clean slate.

That's why I tried to start with brands - I thought there are not so many of worthy ones... It's very hard to point on specific models without being familiar with brands, mainly because I can only judge by their look, which is a wrong way I guess.

Reliability is not the only criteria, I'm also looking for ergonomics and convenience, features that really work, build quality, and look of course.

Example - my last oven "over there" was Sauter which I loved very much: 930 degrees Fahrenheit self-cleaning, very quick heating, extremely even baking, really precise temperature control...

What kind of ovens here offer similar level of features and quality?

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  • 5 months later...

Instead of starting a new discussion on appliances, I thought I would post this article from MSN featuring some new ranges, ovens and cooktops in this discussion.

"Appliance Trends: Ranges, Ovens, Cooktops"

Of course, most are quite pricey.

I'm not loving the sensor feature on the third appliance (Kenmore Elite's SensaCook cooktop) where the cooktop shuts off when the pan is removed or is turned on when the pan goes on. Once in awhile when cooking you need to remove pans to add ingredients off the flame and then put it back on the cooktop to finish. Will the on/off feature impact my cooking?

The 11th oven (Viking's Combi Steam/Convect Oven) sounds like a winner. Does anyone have it or something similar?

The 12th picture shows LG's over-the-range microwave where the door lifts open and goes up above the microwave. My sister-in-law, who isn't very tall, would have major problems reaching up above the microwave to close the door.

And how cool is the last appliance, Insight Pro Microwave Drawer from Sharp? A microwave in a drawer. What will they think of next?

edited to clarify

Edited by Toliver (log)

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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We recently bought a GE Profile combination convection and microwave oven. We love it. I was under the impression that convection cooking was different from "regular" oven cooking, but the times and temperatures, so far, are the same. We can use a combination convection-microwave mode, but that would mean learning how to cook all over again, and I'm not interested. The microwave feature works even better than our last microwave did. With our old micro, a bag of microwave popcorn would always have about 1/3 of the kernels unpopped, and the popped corn was often partially burnt because the little metal pad (or whatever that thing is) embedded in the bag would overheat. In this oven, all of the kernels pop, and there is no sign of burning on the bag. When used as a convection oven, this oven performs extremely well, also.

We're going to be building a new house in about a year. We'll take this combo with us; and with a similar combo installed above the stovetop, plus a double wall oven, I'll have a total of 4 ovens! :laugh: Does life get better than that? :rolleyes:

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We're in Ontario and we're smack dab in the middle of a kitchen remodel( and an addition).

I did a lot of research before our purchase of a fridge, oven, microwave and dishwasher.

I also looked around for the best prices( for instance the oven we went with is still about 700 more expensive in canada than the US).

I ultimately went with the GE Profile Dual Fuel slide-in oven, GE french door fridge( without water because we're getting a RO system), a whirlpool dishwasher( all stainless interior) and a panasonic over the range microwave oven. Our appliance while not on the low end( or high end), still cost 7k. Believe me, I would have loved to go with a Dacor range and a bosche or meile dishwasher but we had a budget( and I still went over it).

I suggest checking out the kitchen and appliance forum on Gardenweb for more information.

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Based solely on research (we're in the middle of a renovation) we bought

- double Miele ovens, which were recommended by a chef friend

- separate standup Viking fridge and freezers, based on having a single unit in our last house which was excellent

- Bluestar (Prestichef) cooktop, made in Quebec I think, based on egullet recommendations and a recommendation from the same chef friend (we bought a wine fridge from them too, and their regular fridges are very reasonable and apparently of high quality)

- Asko dishwashers, which I've read are unreliable, but we have two friends, one of which has two of them, and they've had no problems and love them...previously we had Miele and it was AMAZINGLY quiet (you couldn't tell it was on) and did a good job

- A Quickmill Vetrano coffee maker and Mazzer Mini grinder if you're into coffee, based on a friend who has both and makes great coffee

Good luck!

Vaughan

Edited by Vaughan (log)
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  • 1 month later...

I didn't want to post this in any of the renovation discussions lest I give the authors more gray hairs :laugh: , but I was wondering when purchasing and installing higher-end kitchen ovens, is there usually a need to calibrate them? Or do they function properly from the get-go?

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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How about counter depth fridges? I really want one but never hear anything about them................ :huh:

Dock,

Any refrigerator becomes a counter depth fridge, if you sink it into the wall.

We did that and gained a lot of refrigerator space, with very little additional cost.

Tim

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How about counter depth fridges? I really want one but never hear anything about them................ :huh:

Dock,

Any refrigerator becomes a counter depth fridge, if you sink it into the wall.

We did that and gained a lot of refrigerator space, with very little additional cost.

Tim

HUH !!!!! :huh:

What did you do? Just have someone cut a hole in the drywall and sink it in?

(Woman alone, knowing NOTHING about construction asks, "Can you DO that!?!) :blink:

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How about counter depth fridges? I really want one but never hear anything about them................ :huh:

Dock,

Any refrigerator becomes a counter depth fridge, if you sink it into the wall.

We did that and gained a lot of refrigerator space, with very little additional cost.

Tim

HUH !!!!! :huh:

What did you do? Just have someone cut a hole in the drywall and sink it in?

(Woman alone, knowing NOTHING about construction asks, "Can you DO that!?!) :blink:

Doc,

Yes! It does take some carpentry and planning but it can work wonders. In our case, we picked up about 5" in the wall and extended our counters by a few inches to obtain the counter depth.

The wider counter and 15" upper cabinets provided added benefits.

Tim

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II was wondering when purchasing and installing higher-end kitchen ovens, is there usually a need to calibrate them? Or do they function properly from the get-go?

My experience is that all ovens should be calibrated. The new electronic ones are even easier than the old analog control units so it is really a less than 30 minute affair in either case. In the new electronic units you'll find the instructions in the user manual and while I doubt in the old units it requires only an oven thermo and a # 0 Phillips screw driver.

Now I am not going to tell yo0u that these several thousand dollars ovens have good quality controls with fine band-width, most do not. plus or minus 15 to 25 degrees F is not uncommon. That is why my ovens have stones, to even the temperature swings.

Good luck

Robert

Seattle

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If you are thinking of buying high end appliances, you might consider buying in the US and having them shipped to Canada. I bought a Blue Star 6 burner cooktop (which through Prestichef was priced at $8,000.00 Canadian two years ago) from a California retailer I found on the internet selling same cooktop which after shipping, customs, tax, and currency translation cost me slightly over $3,000.00 Canadian. Today this would be considerably less as the Canadian dollar is now worth more than the US dollar. Canadian retailers are charging at least a 25% or more premium just for the privalege of purchasing the same appliance in Canada over the price charged in the US... just 25 miles away.

"Flay your Suffolk bought-this-morning sole with organic hand-cracked pepper and blasted salt. Thrill each side for four minutes at torchmark haut. Interrogate a lemon. Embarrass any tough roots from the samphire. Then bamboozle till it's al dente with that certain je ne sais quoi."

Arabella Weir as Minty Marchmont - Posh Nosh

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I think this thread started as a request for "no high-end" recommendations so let me add a couple of well-priced, nothing fancy items:

- I have a mid-priced Amana refrigerator (I think Amana and Maytag are made by the same company) and it is great. No frills but well made, energy efficient, and quiet. A bottom-freezer model, which I also like a lot.

- my parents love their KitchenAid dishwasher. I don't know what they paid, but I know my dad, so it wasn't a splurge.

You might also want to check out the Appliance Forum at Garden Web. Good luck.


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